48 ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



wasps, ants, etc., are distinguished from other insects by a 

 more largely developed brain ; but that Dujardin made the 

 discovery that this larger development was due to the pre- 

 sence of these stalked bodies, which he described and which 

 were named after him. He also proved that they are con- 

 nected with intelligence, and almost or quite disappear in 

 insects with poor intelligence. He found them very large in 

 bees, comparatively larger yet in Formica rufa, the common 

 wood-ant, to which the turf-ants belong as a sub-species. 



The anatomy and physiology of the nervous system of all 

 these intelligent insects, and especially of ants, needs, how- 

 ever, much more exact investigation than has as yet been 

 bestowed upon them, and would doubtless bring to light 

 many interesting particulars.* 



Injuries to the brains of ants are followed by exactly 

 similar results as injuries to those of higher animals, and the 

 behavior of ants with injured brains is just like, or very 

 much resembles, that of men or other mammals suffering 

 from brain-lesions. First of all, any important brain-injury 

 causes spasms and a number of involuntary reflex move- 

 ments. Then succeeds a state of stupefaction, with ar> in- 

 crease of reflex action, in which voluntary and conscious 

 action fails. Thus an ant, whose brain has been perforated 

 by the pointed mandibles of an Amazon, remains as though 

 nailed in its place, a shudder runs from time to time through 

 its body, and one of its legs is lifted at regular intervals. 



* Since the above was -written the author has become acquainted 

 with an enquiry into the brain of ants, by Rabl-Rtickhart, published 

 in Reichert and Reymond's " Record of Anatomy, Physiology and 

 Scientific Medicine," (1875, Vol. IV., p. 480,) which confirms and gives 

 accurate details on the statements in the text. According to this 

 writer, both the primitive lobes of the brain of the ant are covered 

 with helmet-like or fungoid prominences, which Dujardin found in all 

 social intelligent Hymenoptera, as bees, and which Rilckhart dis- 

 tinguishes as lobes with " convolutions or radial striped circles." 

 The convolutions he considers to be analogous with the convolutions of 

 mammalia. In these prominencea Ruckhart also found certain " ring- 

 like bodies " which consisted of peculiarly fine molecular matter. He 

 compares the brain of the ant to a vertebrate brain perforated by the 

 pharynx, which is of a strikingly higher type than the ganglia of the 

 other Annulosa. A good description of the ant's brain, with its com- 

 plicated anatomy, will be found in " Leydig's Tables of Comparative 

 Anatomy," I., VIII, Fig. 4; and the same is reproduced by Titus 

 Graber(Vol. I., p. 252).. 



